80 DUBLIN NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 



larva). I had it mounted by an able taxidermist, Gordon of Waterford, and, 

 anxious to give publicity to the capture of such a rare bird in Ireland, I for- 

 warded the specimen to Mr. Thompson, of Belfast, that gentleman having now 

 in course of publication a work on the Birds of Ireland, who, in acknowledging 

 the receipt of the bird, says : •' I am much obliged by your kindness, in sending 

 for my examination the very fine specimen of the black tern (Sterna nigra), and 

 finely set up too, in the plumage of the young of the year. This is a rare bird 

 in Ireland in any state of plumage." 



The following is the account given by Mr. Gould of the black tern, which, 

 he says, '* differs in its habits, manners, food, mode of nidification, the situations 

 it selects for that purpose, and its manner of flight from the true terns, which 

 may at once be distinguished from it by their very long wings and swallow-like 

 form of tail, and by their giving a preference to the sea and its inlets, where 

 they obtain their food, which consists in a great measure of small fish, mollusca, 

 and other marine productions; but in the present bird we find the wings less 

 elongated, and the tail less forked, the tarsi longer, and the toes less webbed, 

 while the food is taken almost solely during the flight, and consists of winged in- 

 sects, such as moths, flies, and the larger species of gnats, to which are added 

 beetles and aquatic larvae, and occasionally small fishes." 



The flight of the black tern also, instead of that heavy flapping motion 

 which characterizes the oceanic terns, is smooth and rapid, while the bird con- 

 tinues to pass and repass over the same space, like the swallow in search of its 

 insect food. 



In England the black tern appears to be migratory, leaving it after the 

 breeding season is over, and returning the following spring. Although the young 

 of all terns diff'er in colour from {he adult bird, the contrast of the present spe- 

 cies is the most remarkable, the colouring of the two being almost diametrically 

 opposite ; they, notwithstanding, soon assume the adult state of plumage in co- 

 lour, and in about eight months their mature livery. The male and female are 

 alike in plumage. I am certain that if Mr. Gould had seen the peculiarly grace- 

 ful manner of alighting on the water practised by this beautiful bird, instead of 

 the headlong plunge of the marine tern, he would have dwelt on it, and made it 

 a strong distinctive character between them. 



MARCH 23, 1855. 



NOTES ON THE BIRDS OF THE SOUTH-WEST COAST, AND ON THE OCCURRENCE OP 

 THE GREATER SHEARWATER (PUFFINUS MAJOR). BY W. ANDREWS, M.R.I. A. 



At a meeting in the month of February, last year, I had the pleasure, through 

 the kindness of Mr. and Mrs. Blackburn, of Valentia, of submitting to the So- 

 ciety the specimen of the Dusky petrel (Puffinua obscurus), which was captured 

 off the Island of Valentia, being the only known occurrence of this rare petrel 

 on the shores of the British Isles. At the same time were exhibited the female 

 of the Manx shearwater (P. Anglorum), with the egg^ which were taken from the 

 nest in the cliff's of the same Island. I propose making some further remarks on 

 the petrels this evening, and upon the occurrence of the greater shearwater 

 (Puffinus major), on the south-west coast of this country ; but before doing so I 

 will submit a brief outline of the features of the south-west coast, descriptive of 

 the localities where the marine birds which visit annually that coast resort to 

 in the breeding season. Taking that portion with the Arran Islands and the 

 coast of Clare as the northern bound, and the Skellig Islands, oflF the coast of 

 Kerry, as the southern, I shall touch on those points along the ranges of those 

 coasts, which present an almost uninterrupted series of lofty and formidable 

 cliffs opposed to the furious surges of the Atlantic Ocean. On visiting the Ar- 

 ran Islands in the year 1844, 1 endeavoured to obtain information relative to the 

 marine birds that periodically visited those islands, and I was surprised to find, 



